Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I thought I should every now and then throw in whats going on in my life other than MK so people could gage how busy I am, you know, like if my whole life could be devoted to Mary Kay or if I have other stuff goin on too. I Thought the best way to do this was to just break down my week for ya:Sunday: 10am, woke up late after returning home around 2am from LifeLight!! That rocked btw!! Got dressed stupid fast so I wasn't late to teach my 3/4's sunday school class second service. I'm a lead teacher in our childrens ministry at church. I develope lesson plans, rock out kids camps, and raise up some mighty warriors for God's kingdom in that aspect of my life :) Rested the rest of the day.Monday: (4:50am)to the gym with Cynthia to get fit (6am)Home to clean up and get ready for the day (7am)The children arrive-Still watchin kids in my home.. I might always do that. (1pm)After lunch we head to the ZOO!! (4:30pm)Arrive home and find out that I will be keeping a hold of some kids over night (6pm)Sloppy Joes for dinner --> a normal Monday night I would go to Success Meeting, a MK meeting, and my husband and son have man time.. they do dinner and manly things. (8pm)Baths and Bed for kiddos (9pm) movie time with my man!! (11pm)SLEEPTuesday: (4:50am)Fitness! (6am)Clean up/ kid arrival (8am)The rest of them wake up and we do breakfast, play.. play..more playing.. (2pm)Naptime/MK work time! I txt a few ladies about follow up appts and reorders. (4pm)Everyone is up, cleaning up the house/prepping for dinner/icing cupcakes (6pm)Find out I'll be keeping some kids again/serving dinner/showering (8pm)Delivering some product/running kiddos around at the park/Ice cream time! (9pm)Kiddos passed out/Veg on the couch/Write this blog!
So thats so far this week- here's an overview of the rest of the week:Wednesday: Fitness, Kids,Booking appointments!Thursday: Fitness, Kids, LifeGroup(church event)!! <3 those ladies!! Place Order.. Last day for Cadi Unit Qualifications!! Its a BIG DEAL!!Friday: Fireworks Tent (church event)Saturday: Kids Leadership Meeting(church event), Pool, Sunshine, Talk to people about MKSunday: Jesus, BBQ, Fireworks Tent (All church events)

I'm busy. I like looking over this schedule though, because it really does show where my priorities are! Home, Kids, Church, Fitness, Mary Kay!! Thats awesome. I am tired though, so thats all you're getting on that right now!! Just wanted to showcase how MK actually fits in to a crazy busy womans schedule!

So its a new year in Mary Kay! June 16th marked the beginning of the 1st quarter and a bit of a new beginning for us all. I thought I'd kick off my blogging experience by putting my goals for this first quarter out there for all too see(since there is soooo many of you. I laugh now*cough* I haven't advertised this blog in anyway)!! So here they are, My seminar 2012 Quarter1 Goals:

Sapphire Star ($1800 wholesale)

Atleast 3 new team members

Non-stop customer flowage

These are small goals for some, they are pretty scary to me right now. I do good with breaking things down into little chunks though, so, that means:

$600 wholesale/month OR

$150 wholesale/week Which is

1 to 2 "Parties" /week OR

An appointment of some kind with 10 ppl/week

*The adding team members part will follow if I work the appointments "full circle", really so will the customer flowage. By that (customer flowage) I mean staying intouch with my currant customers and gain new customers by reaching out and talking to ppl and by referral.

A moment about "Full Circle"
So I have to admit that I haven't been doing this. Working full circle means that you have exposed your customer to every option available in MK. Like if Sally orders a lipstick from me, I'd:

make sure she is on one of our skin care systems

see if she'd like to have a party (thereby meeting her friends/making new customers)

share the MK opportunity with her(and if she loves it, make her one of my team members)

Working your business full circle keeps the momentum of your business flowing. It keeps new customers and new team members coming in. In theory, it creates a smooth path to career ladder domination!! Lets say the career ladder is a twelve step program, I'm on step three. No one gets too excited about step three. There isn't a car here at step three. BUT, with a little full circle action, there COULD be one on step four!!

So thats my goals. Now to put them in action! I'm gonna start by asking some buddies to hold little get togethers for me. Basically one or two guests and we'll just start there. I'm gonna start asking people tomorrow. It's gotta start somewhere!! I'll follow up on how that goes.. I'm terrified of the telephone, but thats a whole new blog!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A little background info? Ok! I began my Mary Kay career 11 months ago to make some extra income and get the coveted 50% discount on the products I love. I'm 26, married, one child. Before MK I had recently quit my job as a bartender/ server/trainer for a popular sports bar chain and was watching a few kids in my home to cushion the blow of no more instant cash. The problem was that the kids I was watching in my home were family and close friends kids and that cushion wasn't really cushioning. Some weeks we'd actually lose money after paying for the groceries and activities, and my husband wasn't having it. He sat me down and told me that my choices were; a)Start charging a realistic rate for childcare(which no one could afford), b)Put our son in daycare and get a job, or c) go back to bartending all night AND watch everyones kids all day, never sleep, keep the house clean, dinner on the table. I'd quit the bar to be at home with my son and husband, I wasn't willing to go back to that, and I certainly didn't want to put out my family. When I heard the MK opportunity it fit my needs. I could do it a few hours a week to suppliment the cushion.
Now I've read some pretty terrible horror stories of how some Mary Kay lady lied to someone and said that when you sign up you have to buy this HUGE inventory and spend all this money in order to be successful. I just want to say that if someone had said that to me, I would have turned right around and ran. My recruiter and director where very clear on how making money vs spending money in this company works. You put in how much you know you are willing to put in the work to sell. A bigger inventory means you'd have more on hand and could fulfill your customers requests right away. When a woman needs an eyeliner, she needs it now. But you'll need customers to need that eyeliner! I got stuck on the "customers need eyeliner" part and refused to focus on the "willing to put in the work to sell" part. Thank the Lord I didn't have a huge chunk of money put away OR the credit to get a loan because I would have placed the biggest order possible!! Instead I came in with the lowest "bonus-able" inventory, $600, and came up with that by passing around a Look Book to everyone I knew. Starting out that way showed me that people will buy the products and that it IS possible to make some extra income selling MK
Since then I have lived and learned. I've struggled with not being the "pushy lipstick peddler", not leaving a sale dangling, money and time managment, and organizational skills. All of these struggles I've overcome or am overcoming with the outstanding help and support of my director, my unit, and the company. One thing that stands out is that when I follow the steps laid out in every piece of training material, the result is generally success. In fact, I've gone from being a lone consultant to a consultant with 5 team members under me, simply from working "Full Circle". So, What would happen if I just threw out my own thinking and simply followed the steps in my training? Well, thats where this blog came from.
Creating a blog to follow me along my Mary Kay journey has been an idea in the back of my head for a while now. I have so many accountability people in my life its hard to not have my goals in the front of my mind, but hey, whats a few extra people? I want to follow the Mary Kay Way for the next year, and regularly update whats goin on in my life, to give an account of what it takes to get anywhere in Mary Kay. For the last 11 months I've just kind of floated around selling MK part time whenever I felt like it. Its been fun, and I've still made a little money. I've blown some money too. Now my goal is directorship within the next year. (I can feel my heart rate going up just typing that out). The steps to get there are pretty clear and I know my director will guide me along the path, my job is to follow the steps and see where it takes me. AND you can come along too!
--And all of you "pinktruthers" can speak up if you see me destroying my life at the end of that year.